


Your Health and Happiness

by HarkaSun



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Body Positivity, Healthy Relationships, I will fight literally anyone, Italian with translations in end notes, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani and Nicky | Nicolò di Genova Acting Like a Married Couple, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani is an Incurable Romantic, M/M, Nicky | Nicolo di Genova Past Weight/Body Issues, Nicky | Nicolo di Genova being a healthy weight, Returning to Malta (The Old Guard), Romantic Fluff, Sleepy Kisses, Weight Issues, except not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26746438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarkaSun/pseuds/HarkaSun
Summary: Back in Malta for their free time, a sleepy night is spent in each others embrace, exchanging words of love and affirmation. A look into Nicky's past issues proves that his weight and his looks means that he is the healthiest he has been in a long time and that his health and happiness is all that matters.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 36
Kudos: 222





	Your Health and Happiness

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to the Luca discourse where people have been, let's say, less than supportive about his weight/looks. Joe loves Nicky and I feel happy to see him on screen and we all just need to appreciate that and show our love and support please and thank you.  
> Enjoy!!

Watching Joe climb into bed was—in Nicky’s not-at-all-biased opinion—the most beautiful sight in this world.

When the team was all clustered together in a room, they would sleep on the floor in their clothes from that day. Now, alone in their apartment in Malta, Joe discarded his clothes down to his tight-fit boxers, sliding into bed and snuggling down in their duvet. His arms wrapped around Nicky, holding him against his bare chest.

Already half asleep, Nicky lifted an absent hand to run down the rolling muscles of Joe’s biceps. It was a good feeling, to be held with such restrained strength. The same arms that Joe used to fight, to defend himself and the team, they held Nicky so gently.

Their much-needed time off was well spent, relaxing together in their penthouse apartment in Valletta. Their days were spent with lazy morning lay-ins and plentiful brunches, warm afternoon walks; their nights were spent with sleepy evenings of soft music and slow dancing, later nights of seductive whispers and shaky gasps and finishing with the other’s name on their lips.

Tonight was quiet; the soporific heat of the day had ushered them inside early, indulging themselves in something mind-numbing on Netflix before taking a bubble-brimmed bath and turning in early for the night.

A warm hand pressed to Nicky’s chest, wandering absently downwards. For a moment, he wondered what his lover had in mind, knowing for a fact that they were both far too lethargic to so much as attempt sex.

Joe’s fingers skated across the soft curve of his stomach, stopped there, and his face pressed against the nape of Nicky’s neck. “I love having you like this,” he murmured and Nicky smiled softly, turned his head back a little just so he could better hear his beloved’s sleepy voice. “I love feeling this.”

His hand flattened against Nicky’s abdomen to make his point, thumb stroking absently over the soft skin there. The sea air breezed in through the open window.

“You push yourself so hard,” Nicky said in gentle reply, not wishing to turn this moment into voicing his own concern, but needing Joe to know his thoughts all the same.

Joe breathed out slowly against his neck. “I know,” he uttered. “I’m the least of my worries. Seeing you healthy is all I need.”

Nicky rolled over in Joe’s arms, shifting himself so they lay face to face, chests pressed together. His stomach just barely skimmed against Joe’s own.

It wasn’t so long ago—just before the turn of the millennia—that Nicky was having issues with food. So many wars in such a short century had taken their toll on all of them. They had seen wars before, of course, but the mortals had developed so many new ways of killing one another in such a short span of time. It was barbaric to watch, to be a part of.

Nicky couldn’t eat more than one meal a day for years.

Before that even—centuries before—Nicky had been in awe of Joe’s body. The self-consciousness that his own wasn’t pleasing without all those toned ridges had been a difficult thing to vocalise in the early years of their relationship, but Joe was patient and understanding and a millennia before his time. Even now, he was before his time.

It was Joe who helped him through it, as they helped one another with so many things, coaxing him to eat when he felt like he shouldn’t, finding the roots of his self-consciousness and working them out. He didn’t need to look starved to be a soldier. He didn’t need to be chiselled to be beautiful.

It wasn’t something they even thought about anymore. When Joe looked at Nicky, he saw the one great love of his incredibly long life; nothing less. How he looked would never change that because it didn’t matter, unless it spanned from Nicky’s own problems. If that was ever the case, they would work through it together. Now, however, they were content.

At the time Nile had joined them, they were both healthier than they had been in years.

Joe still had all his hard muscles, looking every bit as strong as the day they had first met. In Nicky’s opinion, he still pushed himself too hard, but his stringent workouts were lessening in both intensity and frequency by the day, relaxing a little despite their abundance of free time.

The soft swell of Nicky’s stomach had been a long time in the making, but acceptance and love had long ago overpowered any issues he used to have. Joe practically worshipped him when he looked like he did now, simply because it was a sign of his contentment.

Even now, his hand was still on Nicky’s stomach—which can’t have been comfortable since they were now facing—but Joe didn’t seem to care.

“Bellissimo,” he mumbled, his lips soft but steady on Nicky’s own.

Nicky hummed into the kiss. “As are you,” he said when it broke, lifted a hand to cradle Joe’s cheek. “We’re getting better.”

Joe nodded his agreement, his kisses departing from Nicky’s mouth, travelling down in a soft but insistent line over his throat and down his chest. The duvet was folded back with a careless sweep of Joe’s hand and Nicky rolled onto his back, watched on in fondness as his lover kissed the gentle distension of his stomach. The flesh was pale and soft under Joe’s mouth, but Nicky felt every press of his lips deeply.

“You’re an incurable romantic,” Nicky mumbled, his hand coming to tangle his fingers in Joe’s hair.

Dark eyes lifted to him, bright and beautiful and looking up at him with an almost overwhelming sense of love and adoration that Nicky’s breath caught. The fact that Joe could still have that effect on him, even after all these years; it was wonderful.

“Come here,” Nicky requested softly and Joe did as he was told, shifting himself back up to lie beside his lover, lying so close that just a slight incline of his head had their foreheads resting together. “I love you… Ti amo cosi tanto.”

Although it usually went without saying, he wanted Joe to hear it again. He could spend his life saying it—however many millennia that might be—and, still, it wouldn’t be enough.

Joe smiled softly in the dark, pulling the duvet back over them both as Nicky rolled to his side. “Le parole non possono descrivere il mio amore per te,” he mumbled, pressing flush against Nicky’s back, a hand falling to cradle his abdomen once more, thumb stroking warmth across his skin. “Ti amo, Nicolò. Sogni d’oro.”

Nicky slept with Joe’s hand over his stomach and warm breath at the nape of his neck. The love he held in his heart for this man was indescribable. Joe made him feel so beautiful and so loved, even on his worst days, and no one could take that from them.

They were both getting better this century. Life had its ups and downs, but, for now, they could treasure what they had—and they had each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:  
> Bellissimo – (Very) beautiful  
> Ti amo (cosi tanto) – I love you (so much)  
> Le parole non possono descrivere il mio amore per te – Words cannot describe my love for you  
> Sogni d’oro – Sweet Dreams


End file.
